First Try at Layout Design

overall space, dimensions?

Goes into my basement. Have the bench work nearly complete. 

2 sections 8x8’ with a 4x8 between. 

Just started with the anyrail layout software, and Haven’t figures out the labeling for workspace. So there is a little wriggle room.

Assuming that is a 12" grid and the layout is close to 7x24, something this should work. However, I'd be leery of those "S" curves through the switches, especially with the Allegheny. All switches and curves are O72 and all track is Ross.

This version is a little more elegant on the right side, but requires a lot of cuts and doesn't do much for the left side.

Thank you Dave,

It is much more elegant all around. I will bring this to Steve's attention. I am very anxious to get all the pieces ordered. I want to get it laid before my outdoor work load over takes train time. Very nice and quick work. Did you happen to have this in a file, or did you put it together just now?

You're welcome. I put it together just now guessing at the sizes. Here's a version with the smaller straights replaced by larger ones as well as a Parts List. The last version replaces the O72 switches in the yard with #11 switches to minimize the "S" curves and a Parts List to go along with it. The black tracks are the ones that need cutting and the red circle points to one that is very small.

Very nice. You certainly are adept at these tools. I’m grateful for your assistance. Be sure to shoot me an invoice to my email. 😀

Glad to help, just enjoy whatever you decide to build. Hopefully others will chime in with their suggestions. It'll be interesting to see what Steve has to say.

Ok. Steve said the same thing you did. Concern over the esses. Let’s call the four designs you created 1-4. You are recommending #4. I think it is awesome. I need to know if you can tell me the distance between the mainline and first siding in each of the designs, in order to decide if my scale engine will be accommodated. I am putting a legacy Allegheny with HW passenger Cars on this layout. Thank you in advance. 

C&Osteam posted:

the distance between the mainline and first siding

Sorry, but I'm not sure I understand what you mean. If you mean the center-to-center distance between the mainline and siding, it is 5.50" for designs 1-3 because they all use O72 switches and 4.25" for design 4 because it uses #11 switches. However, that can be varied by adding filler pieces. But, that has the negative effect of increasing the footprint as you can see in the yellow examples. That means the top entrance to the yard would have to change some.

And just to muddy the waters a little more, I added a 5th design where I smoothed out the left side too by moving both spurs to a single siding. I also added the SCARM file in case anyone else  wants to mess with it.

Thank you Dave. That makes sense. It’s really lovely. Can’t wait to put track down. 

Were those the dimensions you were looking for?

Yes, thank you. Also for reminding me it is adjustable. 

Hello Dave. I have purchased the SCARM software and started to replicate the final image you drew. A bit of a learning curve. 

With figure #4 you included a parts list. I can read it fine, but I'm not sure if you made changes to the parts inventory for the final layout. (#5)

I was unable to import the file and do this work for myself. Would you be kind enough to share a new clean image and new parts list for my ordering purposes? Thank you in advance. 

I've attached a clean file of the version I believe you're talking about.  Here's the Parts List, but you really should try downloading the file again and opening it in SCARM, so you'll know how to do it in the future and be able to produce your own lists.

If you just click on the "scream-v5.scarm" filename, you get a page of gibberish. That's because the file is a text file. However, if you right-click on the filename, you get some menu options, like those shown in this photo. One of them should be something like the "Save link as" option in the photo. Select that and save it to the same folder your file is in. You can then open it in SCARM.

Here's the Parts List in case you can't get that to work.

Here is a slightly modified version with mostly O84 curves to help with the Allegheny.  

Thank you for helping. I’ll will give that a try. 

Success. I love when a plan comes together. Now I have the files on my cpu. Excellent. Appreciate the tutoring. Now I have work to do. Very nice to have friends to help with some of the details.

Just note how much the length of the storage tracks have shrunk, the use of GarGraves flex track and the use of curved switches. Mind you, I'm not suggesting there's anything wrong with it, just that it seemed like you wanted to use Ross equipment, so I didn't mess with GarGraves.

That said, if you really want to get fancy and have a larger run for the Allegheny, try this version that gives you dual mains where the outer run is O84/O88. It connects to the inner run, but turning trains is more tedious because of the switch locations. I tried lining up all the switches, but that shrunk the storage tracks way too much. I like dual mains because they let you run multiple trains in opposite directions.

C&Osteam posted:

Success. I love when a plan comes together. Now I have the files on my cpu. Excellent. Appreciate the tutoring. Now I have work to do. Very nice to have friends to help with some of the details.

Super! It's a great feeling to try something new and have it work. Now you won't have to figure out the changes, you can just download and open whatever files get posted.

Holy cow. That’s a great idea. Now I have more mulling to do. Great ideas. I have buildings and other plans that I need to incorporate. This will be very calming. 👍🏼

I also find designing to be therapeutic as well as fun and challenging. Don't forget to play around with different designs for the spurs inside the loops. You can measure your buildings and draw rectangles using the "figures" library to place them around the layout to see how things will fit. There are also custom buildings and other objects available, such as those from the www.scarmhirailers.com site.